Just got the P4A fight stick! Any helpful tips?

So I just got my Persona 4 Arena Hori fight stick. It seems to be a great stick, with a fairly compact size and weight, and impressive button clickiness. However I realized that I'm having difficulties doing the shoryuken movements, specifically in Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3. For those wondering this stick is square gated. Do you guys have any tips to make it easier? Also should I start looking into making the stick octogated? If so is that a difficult process?

So I just got my Persona 4 Arena Hori fight stick. It seems to be a great stick, with a fairly compact size and weight, and impressive button clickiness. However I realized that I'm having difficulties doing the shoryuken movements, specifically in Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3. For those wondering this stick is square gated. Do you guys have any tips to make it easier? Also should I start looking into making the stick octogated? If so is that a difficult process?

Is it your first time using a stick with a square gate? With shoryuken moves you should imagine making a Z shape with the stick. The only exception is in SFxT where you can double tap forward and then press down + punch to pull off a shoryuken if you find that easier.

@mscupcakes said:

Is it your first time using a stick with a square gate? With shoryuken moves you should imagine making a Z shape with the stick. The only exception is in SFxT where you can double tap forward and then press down + punch to pull off a shoryuken if you find that easier.

It's my first time using a fight stick ever. I'm pretty familiar with all the motions, it's just that I can't reliably seem to pull it off for some reason. I feel like since It's not octogated I go to far up sometimes causing a jump, or I don't go far enough downward and it doesn't recognize the full Z motion.

I had the same problems when I got my first fight stick too. It'll take a while to get back up to the level you were at with a controller but once you get there you'll start improving like crazy. I'm terrible at UMvC but if you want someone to practice with I'm up for some games!

I put an octogate on my madcatz SE fightstick. I'd imagine putting one on the hori stick would be similar. Removing the bottom was the easy part. The original square gate was very difficult to remove without breaking the tabs that hold it on however it wasn't made of sanwa parts like the hori stick is so it could come off easier.

The easiest way I know of for doing the dragon punch movement with a stick it down-forward, down, down-forward. I just got a stick a couple of days ago, and I find that movement much easier than the normal forward, down, down-forward on the stick.

The other thing that I've heard mentioned a lot is allowing the stick to go into the neutral state on it own in moves. So a quarter circle forward would be holding the stick down, then releasing it to go to neutral, and while its on its way push it forward. I have trouble with it doing the dragon punch, but it can apply to that movement as well.

@mscupcakes said:

I had the same problems when I got my first fight stick too. It'll take a while to get back up to the level you were at with a controller but once you get there you'll start improving like crazy. I'm terrible at UMvC but if you want someone to practice with I'm up for some games!

Sure. I play on PS3. My PSN ID is on my channel under the Achievements tab. Add me =)

@LiquidPrince: Hmm then maybe you'll have to wait until I get my dual modded chun li stick, I have a 360 stick right now!

@LiquidPrince: One way you can pull of the shoryuken motion is to press forward, then the fireball motion. Something like; forward, down, down forward, forward.

@Management said:

@LiquidPrince: One way you can pull of the shoryuken motion is to press forward, then the fireball motion. Something like; forward, down, down forward, forward.

Please don't do this. It's a bad habit and will prevent you from getting better quickly.

Inputs should be entered with intent, and practiced as such. If you use extraneous inputs, your execution speed will suffer. Additionally, if you mash out all of your buttons, you won't be sure that you can reproduce your combos.

@LiquidPrince - forward, down, down-forward. On some systems, there are shortcuts -- I try to avoid them and maintain clean execution unless a combo requires difficult timing and the shortcut is faster/more convenient. If you're new to sticks, you might want to try out a few different methods of holding the ball-top. In my experience, however you go about it naïvely is fine though. For me, the motion is accomplished by pressing forward with two fingers, down with those fingers, then forward with my shoulder. In reverse, it's back with thumb, down with two fingers, back with shoulder.